Dying is almost always a bad thing in Team Fortress 2 (indeed, most shooters). You aren’t helping your team while dead, you aren’t having fun while dead, and a good many unlocks are dedicated to keeping the player or his teammates alive. Trying not to die is, for the most part, a pretty good strategy and you’ll go far with it.

So why would you ever want to die? And I don’t mean “Divebomb and frag the enemy medic, and then who cares if his allies mow you down”, I’m talking “bind a key to ‘explode’ then press it and explode for no reason.” (This guide can help you if you’re not sure how to do this.)

Here are a few advantages a suicide key can grant:

In Case You Get Stuck

Team Fortress 2 is not a perfect game, thank god. There are plenty of ways to get stuck on, in, and under things, and sometimes death is the only way out. May seem obvious but true. Sometimes you’re not even stuck, but the form of death is long and inescapable. A great example would be the bottomless pits of death in koth_lakeside_event and plr_hightower_event. Just kill yourself as soon as you fall in and shave an extra 10 seconds off respawn.

Free Teleport to Spawn

Remember that unlike in real life, death is not the end. (Unless you’re playing Arena mode.) Especially when in game modes with short respawn times like rd_asteroid or BLU team on payload, suicide can be a quick way to reach your spawn if for some reason you’d like to get back there, perhaps to build a teleporter entrance. In this video, a member of RED team suicides in order to prevent a backcap; had the rest of his team also done this they might not have lost the match.

Deny “On Kill” Effects

I have willingly gibbed myself rather than give a Powerjack Pyro 75 health, a Half-Zatoichi wielder the rights to his other weapons, and other examples. Occasionally you know a fight is about to go south; you don’t have any shots loaded, you don’t have the turning speed to meet your foe head-on, or your death is an acceptable trade to deny even the chance of your opponent gaining the benefit.

Give an Engineer Metal at the Beginning of the Match

In many competitive Highlander matches, you’ll see defensive soldiers, Pyros and Scouts running up to the Engineer before the round starts and suiciding. They’re doing this because the dropped weapon will give the Engineer 100 metal, which helps him get all his buildings up quicker. And it’s not like the Soldier and Scout have anything to do before the round starts, plus they have the speed to be back in position before the gates open.

Ultiduo

Ultiduo is a popular competitive format where two teams of one Soldier and one Medic duke it out on the eponymous map to see which combo is the “ultimate duo”. Because of the minimalist style, suicide has become a part of the meta-game, especially for the Medics.

Ultiduo is all about Uber advantage and positioning, and the spawns do not allow the players to reenter. For that reason, if one team’s soldier dies the Medic often suicides as well, because it’s just not worth remaining out in the main area without your soldier. You won’t be dealing any meaningful damage against a combo, and the enemy is going to wait until the last possible moment to kill you so that you lose the maximum amount of Ubercharging time. They may even fight to keep your soldier away from you when he does respawn, for the same reason. Far more efficient to just die, respawn with your soldier, and try it again.

I didn’t have a key bound to suicide for the longest time, because I thought, “I’m not playing this game to die, I’m playing it to be a credit to team.” It took a while before I realized you sometimes could do both.

Do you have any other tricks for TF2? Let us know in the comments below!